Hello and welcome!

This guide will provide you with clear, step-by-step instructions on setting up Loyalty Plans in the Virta Hub. These loyalty plans are designed to help you reward your customers and create long-term loyalty. Below, you will find all the necessary information to create, manage, and optimise loyalty plans for your charge points.

We will cover:

1. Introduction to Loyalty Plans
1.1. Loyalty Plans Key Terms
1.2. Loyalty Plan Overview
1.3. Prerequisites for Implementing Loyalty Plans
2. How to Create and Manage Loyalty Plans on Virta Hub
2.1. Creating a Loyalty Plan
2.2. Monthly Fee
2.3. Driver Membership
2.4 Charging Provider Participation
2.5 Overlapping Loyalty Plans
2.6. Tariffs Priority
2.7. Setting Loyalty Tariff
2.8. Driver Communication and Plan Visibility
2.9. Previewing the Loyalty Tariff
3. Activating and Publishing Loyalty Plans
4. Updating and Deleting  Loyalty Plans

Let's start!

1. Introduction to Loyalty Plans 

Loyalty plans allow you, as a Charging Point Owner (CPO), to offer differentiated pricing for specific groups of EV driver to foster customer loyalty. By implementing these plans, you can offer exclusive benefits to encourage repeat visits and build a competitive edge.

Before starting the practicalities, let's start with some key terms you'll encounter using the Virta Hub.

1.1. Loyalty Plan Key Terms

1.2. Loyalty Plan Overview

Loyalty Plans adjust the standard tariffs for specific groups of EV drivers. For instance, a 10% discount for AC chargers might be available only to loyalty members. This helps create an incentive for EV drivers to choose your charging stations regularly. 

When a loyalty plan applies, the standard plan tariff is modified according to the loyalty tariff. This results in a higher or lower effective tariff, that is then used to calculate the charging session price. The diagram below illustrates how the standard plan and loyalty plan work together to offer a discounted tariff for select EV drivers using the CPO's charging stations. The loyalty plan always applies to all of the CPO's charging stations.

Loyalty plans can be time-limited or indefinite. Once the loyalty plan has expired or been deleted, newly started charging sessions no longer get priced with the effective loyalty tariff. Let's proceed with the prerequisites for setting up a loyalty plan.

1.3. Prerequisites for Implementing Loyalty Plans

In order to access loyalty plans:

• Your organisation needs to use the Virta Hub to manage its loyalty plans.
• Your organisation needs to use the PricingV2 tariff system to use the loyalty plans.
• Your organisation needs to have the Loyalty tariffs module activated
• Your organisation needs to have the Charging Point Owner (CPO) role in the PricingV2 tariff system.
• To create loyalty plans, your user account needs to have at least the Driver Manager role within your organisation to ensure you have the necessary permissions to set up and modify loyalty plans. However, if you're only intending to view loyalty plans, this can be done with any role that typically has access to tariff information. You can read more about role permissions here.

2. How to Create and Manage Loyalty Planning on Virta Hub

Virta Hub is a centralised platform for managing different loyalty plans. If you don't see the tab selection, please check the previous section, Prerequisites.

2.1. Creating a Loyalty Plan

Let's start with creating a new Loyalty plan, for example, "Partners 2024."

• Log in to the Virta Hub
  
• Navigate to the "Pricing" tab and click "Loyalty Plans".
• Click "+Add new loyalty plan".
• Fill in the Plan Name, for example, "Partners 2024", and set the Validity Period (from and until dates).
• Once satisfied, save and proceed to set up tariffs.

Note:
Any charging session that starts while the loyalty plan is valid will have the effective loyalty tariff applied, even if the plan has expired when it stops.

2.2. Monthly Fee

The Loyalty Monthly Tariff is a flexible subscription plan designed for you as an Electric Mobility Provider EMP and Charge Point Owners (CPO). With this plan, you can offer recurring discounts to loyal drivers, generating consistent income.

Benefits of Monthly Tariff 
 
1. Flexibility: You can adjust pricing for EV drivers through a subscription. Monthly fees, as consistent cash flow, make it easier to plan your business. 

2. Enhanced Customer Loyalty: By providing subscription-based services, you can encourage regular use through recurring discounts. 

3. Tailored Promotions: The Monthly tariff lets you effortlessly schedule exclusive promotions and attract more EV drivers to your charging stations. 

This all adds up to giving you more control, happier customers, and a stronger, more loyal customer base.

 
“Please note that if your organisation does not have the "Driver Tariff Visibility for CPO" module enabled, you will not be able to view the "Driver Monthly Fee (VAT INCL.)" section on the right side.”

To activate Monthly Tariff: 

1. Create or edit a Loyalty Plan.  Enable the monthly fee under the “Edit Basic Info”. 
2. Toggle "Monthly fee" on.
3. Set Your Payout: Define how much you want to earn as a CPO, while the EMP margin and VAT are calculated automatically. 

You can effortlessly set your driver monthly fee gross price and the system will automatically calculate the CPO payout while providing clear guidance on which VAT will be applied and processed. 
For example, if you establish a monthly fee of €15, your resulting payout would be €9.56 (depends on the EMP margin). 

Settlement Breakdown 

The monthly driver fee includes your CPO Payout, the EMP Margin, and VAT. Your payout goes directly to you as the loyalty plan owner. 

Note:  
Please note that this is a monthly fee. Therefore, if a driver joins in the middle of the month, they will be required to pay the full monthly fee. 

Once your plan is configured, navigate to the "Driver Membership" section, where you can easily manage and assign drivers from the EMP organisation or specific driver groups to this loyalty plan. 

2.3. Driver Memberships

Memberships define which EV drivers the loyalty plan applies to. There are two ways to set Drivers memberships:

1. EMP Organisation: Whole EMP organisations are selected, and the loyalty tariffs are applied to all of the drivers of that organisation. Multiple EMP Organisations can be selected as members of one Loyalty plan.
2. Driver groups: Only the drivers belonging to the driver group are members of the loyalty plan. Driver groups from the Loyalty plan owner and all of its sub-organisations can be selected.

You can only include either the whole organisation or driver groups in a single loyalty plan. It is, however, possible to create two otherwise identical loyalty plans but include organisations in one and driver groups in another.

Why is my organisation not listed?

• Please ensure that the organisation you would use is below the loyalty plan owner in the organisation hierarchy.
• Please ensure that the EV Driver Manage module is activated in your organisation.

2.3.1. EMP Organisation Membership

The dropdown will list the EMPs that are available to be selected for the loyalty plan. Only the currently selected organisation or EMPs below it in the organisation hierarchy can be selected in this view. In the Virta Hub, it's currently not possible to create a loyalty plan for an EMP above or in a different part of the organisation's hierarchy. All organisations with the EV Driver manage -module activated can be selected as members of a loyalty tariff plan.

Why is my organisation not listed?

• Please ensure that the organisation you would use is the same organisation to which you are setting the loyalty tariff, or it is lower in the organisation hierarchy.

Please ensure that the EV Driver Manage module is activated in your organisation.

2.3.2. Driver Group Membership

When driver groups are selected, the dropdown menu can be used to select the groups whose drivers are to be included in the loyalty plan. Multiple groups can be selected at the same time. You will see the driver groups from the organisation to which the loyalty plan is being created and all of its sub-organisations.

2.4. Charging Provider Participation

Whereas membership determines which drivers get the loyalty tariff, CPO participation sets which charging points the loyalty tariff applies to. Multiple CPO organisations can be selected to participate in the loyalty plan, and all charging points belonging to these CPOs and their sub-organisations will be included. For the time being, the owner organisation of the loyalty plan always participates in the loyalty plan.

You can see the CPO participants on the loyalty plan listing view. The sub-CPOs who cannot inherit the plan are listed separately, and you can see the CPO's names by hovering the cursor over the element. 

The sub-CPOs who cannot inherit the plan are listed separately, and you can see the CPO's names by hovering the cursor over the element. 

Loyalty plan inheritance by the participants Sub-CPO's

All sub-organisations of the selected CPO participants are included in the loyalty plan.

There are two exceptions when the loyalty plan cannot be inherited:

1. When the sub-CPO has one or more loyalty plans of its own, inheritance from a parent is not possible. 

You can enable the inheriting of parent plans by deleting all of the organisation's own loyalty plans.

2. When the loyalty plan has been set to use unit cost adjustment values, i.e., 0.05€/kwh, and the sub-CPO has its tariffs defined in different currencies, e.g. 0.5 SEK/kWh.

A currency mismatch invalidates the loyalty tariff, and thus, the invalid plan cannot be inherited. Loyalty plans with percentage-based adjustment values can be inherited by sub-CPOs who have a different currency than the loyalty plan owner.

2.5. Loyalty Plan Overlap

To ensure clarity in pricing calculations for charging sessions, only one active Loyalty Plan is allowed per membership and CPO participation combination at any given time. However, you can create multiple loyalty plans with overlapping validity periods, provided they have entirely different memberships or CPO participants. If there's an overlap with an existing plan, you can still create new loyalty plans, but they need to be set as inactive.

Virta Hub will notify you at the activation step if your plan has existing overlapping ones and prevent you from activating the new plan.

2.6. Tariff Plan Priority

In cases where drivers belong to multiple loyalty groups, the following priority applies: 

• Driver Group Loyalty Plans take precedence over EMP Loyalty Plans.
• The newest applicable loyalty plan is selected if multiple group plans apply.

Example: A driver belonging to two groups will receive the benefit from the plan most recently created.

2.7. Define Adjustment Values

You can adjust the tariffs using:

1. Percentage Modification: Apply a percentage-based discount or surcharge.
2. Unit Cost Modification: Apply a fixed monetary adjustment to the unit cost.

 
Define different tariffs for AC, DC, and HPC chargers. 

Example: A 10% discount might adjust an AC tariff of €0.3/kWh to €0.27/kWh.

 
Note 
Currently, the maximum precision for the adjustment value is two digits of the currency major unit, e.g. 2.12 €/kWh

 
Once you are happy with the adjusted values, you can activate the loyalty plan and set it to come into effect either immediately or store it for activation later.

2.7. Driver Communication and Plan Visibility 

Drivers can view applicable loyalty plans and pricing in their app. Toggle "Show loyalty plan info in the app" to make these details visible. 

2.8. Previewing the Loyalty Tariff

Once the adjustment values have been configured, you can preview how it would change your Default and Alternate tariffs prior to publishing it. You can select which participating CPO's effective tariff you are viewing from the top. The loyalty tariff applies the same way to the default tariff and all alternate tariffs.

3. Activating and Publishing the Loyalty Plan 

Once all configurations are complete, you can activate your loyalty plan:

• Active plans are visible to drivers and modify pricing accordingly.
• Inactive plans do not affect pricing or visibility. 

To activate the loyalty plan, simply toggle the "Activate loyalty plan" on and click "Publish loyalty plan".

4. Updating and Deleting the Loyalty Plans

You can update or delete loyalty plans:

• Changes affect only new charging sessions.
• To Update/Delete: Select the loyalty plan from the main view and use the sidebar to either "Edit plan" or "Delete plan".

Note

Deleting a loyalty plan won't affect ongoing charging sessions.

That's all! You now know what the loyalty plan is, how it adds value to your organisation, and how to manage it on the Virta Hub.
If you have any questions or need any help, our support team is here to help.